mgo.licio.us

"The face of the operation is Briatore (referred to exclusively in the film by his colleagues and angry, chanting detractors as "Flavio"), an anthropomorphic radish who spends most of his time at QPR plotting to fire all of the managers."

At press time, Harbaugh had sent Michigan’s athletic department an envelope containing a heavily annotated seating chart, a list of the 63,000 seat views he had found unsatisfactory, and a glowing 70-page report on section 25, row 12, seat 9, which he claimed is “exactly what the great sport of football is all about.”

I am left uncertain how to react. I would call for Matt's jersey to be retired, only we don't assign numbered uniforms in the blogosphere. I would put my meagertalents as a songwriter to use in penning a Don McLeanesque paean, but, although the site is coming to an end, Buddy Holly will continue to cut albums, as it were, so such a dirge would be excessive.

SMQ himself erroneously headlines the departure announcement "SMQ Sells Out," probably because he and I and most of the leading vanguard of getting-towards-30 college football bloggers came of age in the Nirvana era, when "selling out" went from changing who you were for money to being paid, period. SMQ is not selling out by the former definition; we should welcome the latter.

I've got a pretty good idea where he's headed, a month or so ago I got pinged by an old associate in search of recommendations for a national, full-time college football blogger and feverishly recommended him. I assume that everyone else contacted responded in a similar fashion, and further assume he got the gig. I won't spoil the surprise, but rest assured that SMQ is going to a place where he will be compensated for his words and -- this is important -- be forced to post many more of them. He will not be turned into a drone that asks coaches how they feel about OSU's national title losses. This is a win-win.

Proposal. Tim Tebow went to Thailand, stole a baby, and did a Heisman pose in front of cameras, but he was evidently beat to it by this guy:

Seeing a civilian do this gave me an idea: all college football blogs that deign to have the sort of "about" page that contains a picture should find a baby and stiffarm the hell out of someone imaginary. Crocs optional. I am working on baby acquisition. Temporary baby acquisition.

Except for the "To Catch A Predator" tone of the voiceover, that seemed pretty fair: mention of the high graduation rates and acknowledgement of how many charges actually resulted in convictions, something that the list flying around the internet failed to do. (They should have ommitted Austin Scott's rape charges, as those never even made trial.)

The numbers are still high, though, and Paterno's combative, dismissive interactions with ESPN Chris Hansen were embarrassing. More embarassing: the interviews with the guys who live in the apartment where Anthony Scirrotto's posse rode rougshod over random engineering students, and the general reaction of the university ("clean up the stadium!") and local police force ("one guy gets a misdemeanor assault beef!") to what sounds like a situation that warranted far more.

Depth chartin'. I haven't seen this anywhere else, but Varsity Blue claims to have a copy of the first official depth chart. Interesting items[update: commenters point out this is just the same thing that was release immediately after spring. Oh well]:

Starting SLB is listed as Austin Panter. SLB is Mouton or Evans, MLB Ezeh or Thompson.

Strong safety is Harrison or Stewart.

OL from left to right: Ortmann, McAvoy, Moosman, Zirbel, Schilling.

Hemingway the other starter at outside receiver; Clemons listed as the starter in the slot (no freshmen yet: Jim Potempa is his backup.)

Bill Martin (Ann Arbor, MI) steered his Great Lakes 70 Stripes to three first place finishes in three races in IRC Class 1 on Sunday to grab first place in the Rolex US-IRC National Championship. Martin wins the second annual championship trophy and much more, a specially engraved Rolex Steel and Platinum Yacht-Master timepiece.

'I've finally won a national championship,' Martin said when told of his win. 'My wife has a national championship in the Cal 25 Class seven years ago. We're finally even.'

Martin attributed his three bullets on the last day to excellent crew work and to Bruce Nelson, his tactician for the regatta. 'We had impeccable crew work throughout the regatta and especially in the three final races. Every sail selection was perfect. We hit every lay line perfectly. Bruce and the crew were spot on for the series.'

At least it was all worth it in the end, I guess: one Rolex and one Rich Rodriguez later, everyone's happy. Except West Virginia, obviously.

Brian,
Varsity Blue is apparently using the University's depth chart as released in the Utah weekly game notes.
http://www.mgoblue.com/uploadedFiles/Sports/Football/Articles/2000s/2008...
However, that depth chart clearly says "Following Spring Drills." Therefore, it doesn't account for anything that happened this summer, the vast majority of Freshman, or the practices that are about to start soon.
In other words, that depth chart is the same as it was this spring and gives us no new insight.

was included in the Mgoblue.com game notes for the Utah game. It contains a disclaimer that it is the depth chart "Following Spring Drills". So I would not be surprised if it changed a lot in the next few weeks after practices begin, the addition of the freshmen, etc.

I can't believe the PSU President let Paterno's interview get aired. What an embarassment - how many times does he use the term witch hunt? And then at the end..."They are aggressive kids, otherwise they wouldn't be competing in front of 110,000 people."
Stephen A. Smith calling for JoePa's resignation on Sportscenter was hilarious though.

I believe that paragraph was either misunderstood or taken out of context.

In the story you quoted, I wrote: "Matt's career advancement is unqualifiedly good news, which is both well deserved and long overdue . . . but, while I am glad Matt has been given this opportunity, I am sad to see a colleague and a friend moving on from SB Nation."

I agree that this is a good thing and I was nothing but congratulatory to SMQ. However, as an SB Nation blogger, I regret his departure, however happy I am for him. I am sure, Brian, that you felt much the same way when Jamie Mottram left The FanHouse: pleased at your colleague's deserved success, yet sorry for his departure.

That's all I was saying. Nothing in what I wrote about SMQ's advancement is in any way inconsistent with what you wrote about SMQ's advancement, except the part about it being "[w]eird," which, rather clearly, it is not.